Man has got to take charge of Man. That means, remember, that some men have got to take charge of the rest – which is another reason for cashing in on it as soon as one can. You and I want to be the people who do the taking charge, not the ones who are taken charge of. Quite.
CS Lewis, That Hideous Strength
Hattip to Matt Archbold at Creative Minority Report. I wasn’t a big fan of the late Paul Harvey but this is pretty good and true.
It struck me that the recent video “If I wanted America to fail” must have been modeled after the Harvey bit. Always steal from the best!
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This is exactly and precisely what has happened – and it has happened because we have not taken Ezekiel 33 seriously. We have not been the watchmen that we should have been. We have not prayed for our Bishops, Priests and Deacons. We have not written to our Senators and Congressmen. We have not stood up to our friends and neighbors as they embraced the neo-pagan, post-modern slide into heresy and apostasy. We have played with our own lives in the horsebarn while the devil set fire to it outside. We wanted to be known as nice, tolerant, kind, considerate, open-minded.
And now the whirlwind is upon us. We shall reap what we have sown (Galatians 6:7). We have not just allowed the devil his way; we have encouraged and aided him by our apathy and selfish interests, and now without our repenting, God will give us up to the god we always wanted – the one with two horns.
You are right Paul. It is not too late to pay attention to the Warning in Ezekial, but we had better start paying attention right now!
a story:
I had a heart attack over a year ago at an inopportune time- (chagrin) I tried to ignore it.
A Catholic businessman we knew saw me in pain and quietly Warned me that it sounded “cardiac” but you know what they say about De Nile —
Later as pain in arm continued I asked another friend – a salesman and a part time evangelical minister to pray for me; I thought he would pray for healing. He put his hand on my head and prayed that God would lead “this woman to pay attention to the warning signs You have sent”.
Husband, pretty much unaware, had to be absent for a bit. I bowed my head and asked God to send someone to be with me while he was gone. Short prayer. When I raised my head there were two smiling African faces in front of me. I said who are you? One said I am Peter and the other said I am Jean Paul. Delightful. Both were strong Catholics, veterinarians, had studied in seminary in the past. They prayed with me. My husband came back and I told him all about it. The symptoms went away.
On the long ride home I heard the pastor on the radio ( the one predicting the end of the world) talking about Ezekial 33. Slept at home that night; symptoms came and went. Early in the morning, I thought I would look up the passage the pastor had been talking about. I read Ezekial 33:3-5 and took heed, we went to the hospital and now I’m fine and dandy. Thank God.
33:3 and if the sentinel sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and Warns the people;
4 then if any who hear the sound of the trumpet do not take Warning, and the sword comes and takes them away, their blood shall be upon their own heads.
5 They heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take Warning; their blood shall be upon themselves. But if they had taken Warning, they would have saved their lives.
God gives us Warnings because He loves us. We should pay attention.
Anzlyne’s words were prophetic the other day. While this isn’t relevant to the discussion at hand (and please forgive me for the digression), I have had to make a visit to the local hospital for eaxctly what Anzlyne described. The physicians found in their investigation something else amiss. Details do not matter, but were serious enough that any further delay would have been most imprudent.
So thank you, Anzlyne. It is truly miraculous how God speaks to us. I have never met Anzlyne, nor do I know her.
(PS, this hospital has a super fast WiFi – TAC loads promptly!)
OK, enough out of me.
Paul Primavera does your name means something like Paul First Truth?
When Ezekial 33 was written, neither you nor I nor America was conceived, but God’s words and His love are living and timeless and personal. God has blessed us! The devil would like for us Americans to forget God’s providence, but we turn to Him all the more. The devil can’t stop the good work of TAC either– it connects and encourages us all
Yes, Anzlyne:
Prima = First
Vera = True
Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. The title of this post is, “If I were the devil….” Well, the devil isn’t going to win. I was playing the audio for the Scripture readings on my computer at my bed side – the story of the angel rescuing Simon Peter from prison, the Psalm about the angel of the Lord rescuing those who fear Him, the part in St Paul’s second epistle to Timothy about being poured out as a libation, and Jesus’ declaration to Simon that he was Peter the Rock. A nurse walked in as the audio was playing. She asked what it meant. She did not understand. I explained how Saints Peter and Paul were murdered by Caesar for their faith, how Caesar couldn’t stand the idea of religious freedom, and how much Caesar wanted to be worshipped as a god. The victory was in the eventual conversion of Rome to Christianity. The devil did not win.
And the devil isn’t going to win either. But we have to speak out whether we are lying in a hospital bed (or sitting next to one listening to the USCCB web site), doing our job at work, or interfacing with our neighbors. “If I were the devil…” is a most appropriate blog entry here at TAC. Let it remind us to be His witness in whatever humble way we can.
PS, Father Tom came and I did my confession. The devil isn’t going to win my soul today.